1924 Democratic Party presidential primaries

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1924 Democratic Party presidential primaries

← 1920 March 12 to June 7, 1924 1928 →
1,096 delegates to the 1924 Democratic National Convention 729 (two-thirds) votes needed to win
Candidate William Gibbs McAdoo Al Smith John W. Davis Home state California New York West Virginia Delegate count 431.5 241 31 Contests won 21 8 1 Popular vote 456,733 — — Percentage 59.8% — —
First place by convention roll call      McAdoo      Smith      Davis      Underwood      Harrison      Brown      Various
Previous Democratic nominee James M. Cox Democratic nominee John W. Davis

From March 12 to June 7, 1924, voters and members of the Democratic Party elected delegates to the 1924 Democratic National Convention, in part to nominate a candidate for President of the United States in the 1924 election.^[1]

Though William Gibbs McAdoo won a vast majority of states, and almost three-fifths of the popular vote, in those twelve states that held primary elections, it meant little to his performance nationwide. Many of the delegations from states that did not hold primary elections favored his main rivals, Oscar Underwood of Alabama and Al Smith of New York, neither of which won any primary elections. As well as the primaries that McAdoo did not win were won by "local sons" who stood no chance of winning the nomination, or in some cases were not even formal candidates. Once at the convention, the party was deadlocked for 102 straight ballots, before dark horse candidate John W. Davis, (who was not a formal candidate when he arrived at the convention) was chosen on the 103rd ballot. Davis went on to lose the election to Republican candidate Calvin Coolidge.